A magistrate in Chinhoyi on Tuesday acquitted Godfrey Makoko, an activist for the Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC), who had been accused of threatening to kill MDC president Douglas Mwonzora.
This acquittal is a significant setback for Mwonzora, who had already suffered another legal defeat earlier in the week when the Constitutional Court rejected his challenge to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) delimitation report and his request to postpone the 2023 elections.
After a lengthy trial, Chinhoyi Magistrate Toendepi Zhou released Makoko (40), as the four witnesses called by the prosecution gave conflicting versions of events and their testimonies were deemed unreliable.
The court also noted that one of Mwonzora’s security aides, who worked at the Chinhoyi Court Complex where the alleged threats were made, testified that he never saw or heard Makoko issuing any threats of violence.
Makoko had argued, through his lawyer Kudzai Choga, that the charges against him were fabricated to settle political scores, and that Mwonzora had laid the charges to retaliate against CCC activists who had chanted political songs outside the courthouse on November 11, 2022, after Mwonzora’s application for a spoilation order against CCC was ruled defective. The magistrate ruled:
The State did not crucially interrogate fourth State witness who said he never saw accused person near complainant,” the magistrate ruled.
The State shot itself in the foot by calling the fourth witness (name supplied) who said he didn’t see any such incident of threats of attack on Mwonzora by accused person.
The State failed to prove itself beyond any reasons doubt and, therefore, this court will give benefit of doubt to accused person who is hereby acquitted and discharged.
In March, the court cleared Makoko’s co-accused: CCC interim provincial secretary Tawanda Bvumo, former Chinhoyi mayor and incumbent Ward 12 Councillor Dyke Makumbi and party security officer, Taurai Justin Munyaradzi.